A critical analysis of the implementation of the new model for allocating federal resources to primary healthcare: Operationalism and improvisation

Abstract

This is a critical essay on policies for primary healthcare (PHC) adopted by the Jair Bolsonaro government in the Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS), particularly in the first year of implementation of its new model for allocation of budget funds. The first part addresses the measures and effects of the first year, revealing the on-going process of valorization of an “operational SUS” as opposed to the principle of universality. The second part analyzes some evolving scenarios in the implementation of the new model for “financing” PHC in terms of losses and gains in funding, especially in two state capitals, São Paulo and Manaus, bearing a direct relationship to the problematic situation a year since the novel coronavirus pandemic struck. This exercise aims to relate the values in the Weighted Capitation Component for these municipalities, comparing the year 2019 (without the new model) to 2020 (one year after implementing the new model). The destruction of universality in the SUS via PHC continues in full sway, as the data show. If the situations in Manaus and São Paulo (with financial losses when compared to the funds received in 2019) in fact represent a trend, it is likely that the underfinancing produced by the new PHC allocation model will happen in other Brazilian cities in an unequal and combined pattern according to their realities.